The Blood of Olympus
by NimbusWolsbane
Summary: Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them, and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens.


I - Percy

THE DARKNESS ENVELOPED PERCY. He plunged down the gullet of the never-ending pit. He longed for daylight. Below him a familiar voice bellowed a curse.

"I will hunt you down, you cannot hide from me and you cannot kill me! I am the pit itself! I will chase you till the ends of the earth if I have to. But mark my word puny mortal you shall die at my hands!"

Percy woke up, dripping with sweat, his nose bleeding. His ears rang and claustrophobia shrouded him. The walls distorted and another panic attack started. He screwed his eyes shut knowing that the only remedy was the sea. He ripped off the covers and let his powers guide him to water. He walked blind until the ground disappeared from beneath him, sinking into the depth of the Mediterranean. He stayed there, lying on the seabed, steadying his breathing. It was six in the morning by the time Percy returned to the Argo II. He summoned a geyser and landed on the deck. He slumped against the main mast and watched the sun set over the city of Parga.

Percy tore through his pizza like one of Jason and his' hurricanes, only stopping to down his blue cola. Being in tartarus really worked up an appetite. The rest of the seven sat around him either eating of engrossed in conversation. Jason was the first to speak.

"We'll none of us died in the Epirius."

"That's unusual." Leo muttered. Piper shot him a look and he fell quite.

"But we can't rest on our laurels," Jason continued, "we must journey to Athens. Our next stop is Levkas, but before we reach there we have to make some calls...Percy if you don't mind"

Percy reluctantly stopped eating and waved his hand. A spray of water sailed through the window of the mess hall and sliced the sunlight in half. A rainbow emerged from its centre. Annabeth stepped forward, flicking a Drachma into the rainbow.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Camp half blood."

The rainbow distorted and then refocused to show camp Half-blood. At first glance it seemed to be empty. Then campers ran into view, sprinting up and down the hill carrying weapons, armour and in some cases burning branches. Near Thalia's tree Clarisse was strapping armour onto Peleus. Around the border stretched a ten foot wall, on the top wall the Apollo cabin were reading there bows. Suddenly Chiron shouted.

"Eagles, bring them down!"

Three dozen eagles of Rome were diving towards the camp, depositing Romans on the ground, at their forefront was Octavian, wielding the Standard. The Romans screamed a battle cry. The Apollo cabin finally organised themselves and fired a hailstorm of arrows into the sky. More than a dozen eagles were hit, disintegrating at once. The rest were chased away by Peleus. With their only escape route gone the Roman soldiers retreated rapidly only to find there exit blocked by the Apollo cabin and the wall that surrounded the camp. The Romans were trapped.

"PAX ROMANUS!" Octavian screamed and Hannibal ploughed through the wall.

The image flickered and died.

"That back stabbing, teddy bear killing, traitor!" Frank yelled.

"He went against Reyna's orders…he'll be exiled." Hazel said.

"Reyna forfeited her Praetorship when she journeyed through the Mare Nostrum, you saw him wielding the standard, the Legion must have elected him." Jason announced

"We have to tell her," Percy chimed in.

"No it'll destroy her, being Praetor is her whole life," Jason answered. "Annabeth can you try the acropolis?"

Annabeth flicked another drachma into the rainbow.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me the Acropolis."

The rainbow once more distorted and showed the Acropolis. Annabeth gave a cry of rage. The statue of Athena had been pulled down, it was scattered across the floor in a thousand pieces. In its place stood a red marble throne, its arms decorated with skulls of humans and monsters. Sat on the throne was Porphyrion, talking with a huge armoured Cyclops.

"Tyson is a formidable opponent even if he is still young," The Cyclops murmured. "He will not join our cause because he is the general of Olympus. Without him are numbers are still limited-"

"Be silent," Porphyrion hissed, "We are not alone…"

He sliced his hand through the air and the image flickered and died. Jason stood up.

"Set course for Athens."

II – Hazel

Hazel wanted to punch Octavian, everything had been going to plan before he embarked on his power hungry quest. They had closed the doors of death, they had rescued Percy and Annabeth and they had all come out the other side relatively unscathed. They had also believed that they had a cure for the hatred between the two camps. But then Octavian attacked and they were back to square one. She breathed out her anger, she needed to concentrate.

For an hour every day she had sat on her bed and practised controlling the mist. At the foot of her bed stood a roman style strigil, signet ring and bone dice. They were all fairly modern items that she had bought from a shop Levkas but they were all in the same style and made from the same materials as in Ancient Rome, that was what mattered. Hecate had told her that when practising using the mist she should always use items rooted to her heritage but they should also not be sentimental to her in any way. Thus, these items were perfect. She focused on the strigil first, closing her eyes and picturing the change she wanted in every layer. When she had built up the picture so that it was in clear focus she opened her eyes and pictured in front of her. The mist curled up from around her and took shape, a huge black scythe hovered in the air before her. She smiled, the blade looked sharp enough to cut through even wolverine's adamantium bones. Hazel had liked that movie, it had been the first she had watched since she was reborn. The X-men was one of Frank's favourites so naturally there first proper date had been watching it on the flat screen in Frank's room. She pulled her self out of her day dream and was not surprised to find that the scythe had dissipated back into the mist. Her ADHD really made it difficult to control the mist.

She moved onto the signet ring, this time picturing its pattern decoration a set of oak doors. She built up its picture and projected it in front of her. Then she was blasted across the room.

By the time Hazel got to the deck, there was already a giant spider attacking the boat. Well they had had a shrimp, - and turtle attack them so a spider wasn't that shocking. It was get black and about the size of the Empire State Building (minus the Greek Mount Olympus). Four of it's legs stood in the water the other two smashed down onto the boat, demigods and oars. Each of her fellow demigods were in varying stages of despair. The extremes were Percy who appeared to be skating over the water as it it was ice And hacking at the monsters legs and Annabeth who was trying to help but seemed to be have a panic attack if any part if the monster got within a ten foot radius of her. Hazel sighed and charged the spider.

Things were going well, for the first five minutes anyway. Piper had stabbed it in the belly, frank had shot two dozen arrows into it's flank and hazel had brought up hundreds if kilograms of metal from the seabed and dumped it onto the spiders head. Things had been going well, until Jason decided to electrify the water. Whilst this had caused the spider some pain it had also electrified Percy who was flung from it surface, landing on the deck of the Argo II. He had, thankfully, got to his feet a few moments later, but he was still smoking. The spider took advantage of the confusion and had shot venom at Percy. Annabeth cried out and shoved Percy out the way. Two more of the spiders pincers sliced down at frank and piper however this time they did not miss. Both the pincers pierced there targets skin and poison entered there bloodstream. Hazel screamed Franks name but it was too late both Frank and Piper were unconscious. Leo hurled fireballs at the spider to no avail, Jason tried to swooped down and rescue them but he was swatted away by a spider leg. Hazel could only watch as both of them were cocooned in spider webs and dragged beneath the surface of the water. She fell to her knees; she knew what this meant. Gaia had her sacrifices ...

III – Piper

PIPERS EARS POPPED as she was tugged deeper and deeper under water. The only reason she wasn't dead yet was the cocoon of spiders web that surround her from all sides. It served the duel purpose of keeping the water out and the oxygen in. The down shot? It was pitch black. Piper fumbled around her belt until she located the handle of Katropis. She unsheathed it and it glowed with an unnatural aura. As usual, she made the mistake of starring deep into the celestial bronze blade.

A sheen spread over the blade and images flickered into life. Piper stood on a set of white steps, chained to another figure, Frank. Her hair was tangled and much longer; her clothes were torn and worst of all a shadowy figure stood before her armed with a sword of Earth. He laughed manically and uttered five words that chilled her to the bones.

"Our Sacrifice. Blood of Olympus."

With that he lit, for no apparent reason, a piece of fire food. Frank immediately fell to his knees. The shadowy figure brought the earthen sword down. Piper tried to look away but she was entranced by the dancing images. The earthen sword finished it's arc and sliced a long gash in Frank's throat. Both the real Piper and the Piper in the blade cried out. The Piper in the blade sunk to her knees and grabbed hold of Frank's hand. Frank closes his eyes and drew his last breath. His blood flowed down the marble steps. The earthen sword was once more raised and this time it was aimed for Piper's heart.

Finally Piper tore her eyes from Katropis. A cacophony of emotions swirled through her. But mostly Piper was angry. Not angry at the fact that she was going to die but angry she had seen it happen. Angry that she could not prevent it. She raised Katropis and plunged it down towards the spider's webs. But she could finish the action. Her legs gave out beneath her, as dead as a corpse. She hit the floor; a feeling of paralysis began to spread upwards from the spider bite in her ankle. Her arms went dead then her neck. Soon all she could do was stare into Katropis.

Katropis misted over and reviled the huge water spider. It's legs kicked and powered the spider through the water. From it's body trailed to ropes of spiders web attached to which was two orbs of webbing. One held Piper the other held Frank. The spider gave one last push and landed on the seabed. It scuttled forwards until it reached a large stone arch. Two identical statues of a huge merman with the horns of a bull flanked either side of the arch. At the peak of arch was written the words: Μέγαρο Ωκεανός. Her head automatically translated it as the Palace of Oceanus.

Piper had heard of that name. Oceanus was the Titan of the sea and the rival to Poseidon. He had fought in the Second Titan war but had been thoroughly defeated. But now it seemed he was martialing his army once again in order to aid Gaia's cause. Piper watched as the Spider passed through the arch and entered the ceiling of a vast cavern. Tents, army barracks, stables and even a huge marble palace lined the cavern floor. The spider did not stop here but pushed upwards until he reached a hole cut into the ceiling of the cavern. Piper stared into Katropis, watching intently as the spider was propelled through the tunnel. Seconds later and The spider emerged into a much smaller cave. It pushed Piper and Frank's orbs onto a rocky outcrop and sunk under the water once more.

Two Cyclopes suddenly entered the Cavern and began to drag the spider orbs away. Piper cursed in her head as Katropis slid from her view. She was now trapped, about to die and had no idea what was happening around her...

IV – Leo

LEO SWORE UNDER HIS BREATH as the spider tugged Piper and Frank underwater. A few feet away his friends were in a state of panic. Percy had slipped under the water but had returned only a few moments later shaking his head in dismay. They were long gone. It was all Leo's fault. He was a traitor, he had told Gaia were to find them and he had powered down the defenses. Because of him two of his best friends would die.

Despite the loss of Piper and Frank, Leo tore down the steps and burst into the engine room. He quickly moved to the back of the colossal heart of the Argo II. Here was the reason he had betrayed his friends. There stood a still image of his mother covering against a workbench, the workshop around her burning. Burning with Leo's fire. This was the one thing that Leo had always blamed himself for and the one thing he felt the most guilty about. Guilty enough to lead Piper and Frank. He prepared himself; he only had one shot at this.

"Gaia," he murmured, "I have done what you asked now take me to my mother."

Suddenly, the images started moving, the flames were now racing quickly towards his mother. He closed his eyes and plunged into the workshop.

He stumbled towards his mother, disorientated form the smoke that was filling up his lungs fast. He grabbed his mother's hand but straightaway a wall of fire burst into life in front of him. He used his body as a shield and pulled his mother to safety. A smile passed across his face, his mother would live.

"Go mum." He yelled as the fire advanced towards them.

His mother dived towards the portal and was immediately repelled backwards. Thrice, more she tried to cross into the engine room and thrice more she failed.

"Gaia! Let my mother go!" Leo yelled. An answer came from a figure that stood at the heart of the flames.

"I said you could rescue your mother…I said nothing about allowing her to pass through the portal."

Leo's mother glowered at the figure and then turned back to face Leo.

"Mijo, you must go." She murmured

"No mum, I won't leave you." He whispered. His mother smiled.

"No Mijo, you won't."

With that she tackled Leo and sent him flying through the portal and into the engine room.

Leo crashed into a TV screen and fell back. His left leg snapped and he knew it was broken. He lay, half conscious, staring through the portal and into his mother's eyes. She had slumped against a wall as the fire raced towards her but she did not take her eyes of Leo. Then she tapped out in Morse code I love you again and again until the fire engulfed her.

Leo sobbed into the floor. The image had frozen right at the point when the flames had surrounded his mother. He closed his eyes; he could no longer look at the portal. It seemed like his mother had died all over again. He would never see her again. He heard footsteps behind him; Percy and Annabeth had emerged from behind him. Percy rushed over to him checking his leg and asking him numerous questions that he could not here over his sobs and the hum of the engine. Annabeth, however, did not rush to him but inspected the screens on the walls. She scanned the information until she found the defenses section. She saw that hey were all powered off. She glanced at the image of his mother's death and put two and two together like only she could. She screamed and hauled him up by the scruff of the neck and pinned him to the wall.

"What did you do?" She yelled at the top of her voice. "You soled us out…you as good as gave them to Gaia."

Leo nodded dejectedly. WHAM! Annabeth's fist slammed into his face. Blood clouded his vision. His nose was broken and he had a cut in his forehead. He could just make out Percy holding back Annabeth who had murder in her eyes. But Leo didn't mind. Leo wanted to die; he wanted to be with his mother. His vision blurred and he passed out

V – Annabeth

SHE STILL WANTED to hurt, if not kill Leo. Even though a day had passed since the engine room, all she could think about was chocking the life out of him. Everyone except Percy couldn't even stand to look at him. She suspected the reason for this was that Percy had though he had lost his own mother when he was twelve. Three times a day he would go down to the stables, were Leo was incarcerated, to give him some food.

The atmosphere that shrouded the Argo II and indeed all the remaining members of the seven was that of anger and despair. Jason hardly ever left his room, both out of pure, un diluted, sadness at the capture of Piper and of course the fact he would probably strangle Leo at the first opportunity. Hazel however had taken the opposite extreme. She had become overly active. She did every and anything that quickened their pace to Athens and, hopefully, Frank and Piper.

Annabeth was now very happy that she had learned the basics of the Argo II. It meant that they only had to rely on Leo for complicated repairs rather than full operation of the ship. She consulted the map of Greece that Leo had stuck above the steering wheel. They were just rounding the horn of Agia Storia. They would soon be at the island of Cythera were they would have to stop to repair the damage the water spider had caused.

Hazel called down to her from her perch at the top of the mast. She was using a portable RADAR/SONAR to make sure they were not about to be attacked again. Leo Had disconnected the ships RADAR/SONAR so they had to make do with a far less portable one.

"Annabeth, how much longer until we reach Athens?" Hazel enquired.

"Two days," It was a lie of course. At there current rate, they wouldn't reach Athens in time even without the repair stops. There was no way to reach Athens in time. No, a voice in Annabeth's head said, there is one way. Annabeth shuddered, She didn't want to even think about _**that way **_let alone actually try to do it.

Annabeth was shaken from this particular train of thought by Percy emerging onto the deck. He skin was an odd sort of grey colour. No, not grey, pale…he was sea sick!? Annabeth laughed but was interrupted by Percy.

"Annabeth," He murmured, "There is something wrong with the sea."

The Bubble of air that held Annabeth and Percy sunk into the water. When they were halfway towards the bottom Percy let the bubble float. The first thing that Annabeth noticed was the tide. It was higher than she had expected, she checked this morning and it was supposed to be a calm day, nothing of this speed. She examined the water and gasped. For it was not tides slowly buffering the bubble backwards it was masses fish. Hundreds upon hundreds of them all surging forwards, towards something… or away from something.

It was then that she felt the tremors that was now creating real waves that was now creating real waves that was pushing them back even further. They were now slowly growing in magnitude. She yelled at Percy to take them back to the ship, but he was way ahead of her. They were propelled from the surface of the water, she un gracefully spun through the air before landing on the deck with a thud. She pulled her self-up and staggered to the left. She only just managed to grab the mast before she keeled over. At first she though that she had a concussion from hitting the deck, but then she realized, the Argo II was listing to the side.

She yelled out and made her way towards the control panel, but she stopped dead in her tracks. Only two kilometers away from the Argo II was a twenty foot tsunami. But that was not the thing that scared her the most. The island of Cythera was being held aloft by two Giant hands.

VI – Frank

A shiver ran down Frank's spine as he stared up at the stalactites that hung from the earthen ceiling. It had been a few minutes ago that some northern Cyclopes had cut the tightly knit spider webs open. He still could not move any part of his body. Not his legs, paws, ears, head or even his tail. He was locked in the form of a Beagle, that decision was much more instinct than conscious though. Perhaps if he used his precious last moments of full body control to form into something much more useful, a shark perhaps, he could have busted out of his spider-web prison and saved piper. He could see her now, in the corner of his eye. The two of them had never really been that close but he still he felt some degree of responsibility for not using his powers to greater affect.

Frank didn't know what the Hades that spider venom contained but it was working rather well. It must have been at least three hours since the webs were removed and he still could not do anything but lie there and wait. A low rumble emanated from behind him, closely followed by the echoing of a two sets of footsteps. It was a few seconds before the owners of the footsteps came in to view, a pair of Northern Cyclopes.

"You two are to follow us and no funny business!" The first Cyclops growls his eyes wide and stupid.

_(Ares) He is definitely not the sharpest blade in the armory_.

"You dolt, there paralyzed."

_(Mars) The second one seems to have a few more brain cells than his friend._

"What is paralied?" Cyclops number one asks.

"I dunno, the master said that not me."

_(Mars) Ah, I was wrong, like his friends he has less of a brain than an amoeba._

_(Ares) You used the word amoeba, Athena is so wrong we're smart!_

Frank groaned, his head felt like was splitting open. It seemed even worse when Mars and Ares weren't arguing. Like the Greek and Roman aspects shouldn't go together. The Cyclopes continued their argument; the most intelligent of which being whether or not paralyzed was actually Frank's name. Eventually they picked up Frank and Piper, throwing them over there shoulders before plodding of groaning every few feet.

The Parthenon flickered between two time periods. The modern day Parthenon was quite literally the bones of what it ones was, most of the pillars that acted as walls were intact however there was no celling and a bare floor. The ancient Parthenon was magnificent, artwork and sculptures from across Greece littered the floor space. In both images there was only once constant. On the marble pedestal that should have housed the Athena Parthenos now stood a vast blood red marble throne peppered with gold leaf. It was the throne he had seen in the Iris Message ages ago. But Porphyrion was nowhere to be seen instead a hooded figure stood before the throne an earthen sword strapped to his waist.

The hooded figure gestured towards two wild centaurs that stood on either side of him, murmuring a few terse words. The centaurs trotted forward brandishing a hypodermic needle the syringe of which contained a silvery liquid. Frank mentally cringed as the needle entered his shoulder and the silver liquid joined his blood stream. It had been a great source of amusement for Leo that a son of Mars that looked like a teenage bodybuilder was scared of needles.

After a few minutes his muscles relaxed and he managed to twitch his ears. His form thankfully melted back into a human. His hands and feet were quickly bound as his muscles finally began to work once more. It was like the worst case of pins and needles in history.

The hooded man looked around at his followers. Despite his confident persona it was clear that he was slightly nervous. His foot taped on the marble floor in an offbeat, erratic fashion. His hand gently shook as he grasped the edged of the hood that he proceeded to gently lower. He seemed to be in his late forties. His hair was a charcoal black slashed with a dark grey every now and then. His face was slightly tanned but other that there was nothing memorable, nothing that would make you recognize the face if you saw it a year later. Except for the scar. It was thin but long, bisecting all of his features from his hairline to his chin, crossing in between his eyes. I had faded over time but you could see it if you focused. It was if a sword had been planted there. _How is he still a live_, Frank thought. It was then that the whispers began to weave there way through the ranks of the Giant's armies that stood behind them. One word that sent shivers down Frank's spine.

"_**Jason"**_


End file.
